Hindsight

“Hindsight is 2020.” What a wonderfully clever expression. A witty play on words that truly captures what it means to be a human being, an individual who is constantly forced to make choices without ever fully knowing how these decisions will impact the future. Our vision of the future is incredibly weak, while we think we can see the past in perfect clarity. There is no mistaking the past. It’s all right there. Inalterable. The author of this expression was probably very proud of his or her wit. So I feel a little bad saying that this person was so totally wrong.

We warp and deform the past in a manner that is extremely difficult to understand. We all remember things in different ways. No one person’s definition of the past is the right one. Today, my fellow seniors and I look back on this most recent four-year period of our lives in a way that is just dripping with nostalgia. Almost literally dripping with sentimentality. Saturated with our school mascot prancing among puffy white clouds, wearing halos and surrounded by hearts. Our imperfect memories scare us in moments like these. Because nothing, not even our days walking the halls of the Academy, can be perfectly preserved in time. Every one of our memories is affected by our present emotions. A moment is gone as soon as the next moment arrives.

But it does not have to be this sad or scary. All we have to do is trust our emotions. Memories are not intended to perfectly recall the past. Memories are meant to capture the essence of the emotions we felt as we lived these moments. Moments are not perfect, but the beauty of memories is that memories can be. And as we stand here today feeling ever so strongly the emotions of gratitude, nostalgia, love, fear, hope, joy, and sadness, we know that as imperfect as we were, as these last four years were, this place is nothing short of perfect. Perfectly imperfect. Perfect because no other institution, no other community, no other family, could have turned us into the people we are today. And you guys, my classmates, my brothers and sisters for life, are perfect.